


Birthday Blues

by impish_nature



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Wendy and Stan bonding, cause those two make a good team, stan will make a criminal out of her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 20:33:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7860142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impish_nature/pseuds/impish_nature
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wendy’s birthday wasn’t going as planned. (Birthday present for a friend who wanted Stan and Wendy bonding)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthday Blues

**Author's Note:**

> Birthday present for the lovely @snapback-gravity-falls Happy birthday! The prompt was ‘Wendy bonding with one of the Stans’ And well, her and Grunkle Stan make a good team. They can’t be trusted together.

An echoing groan vibrated through the mostly quiet gift shop, heads turning to the source of the noise.

“Wendy! I don’t pay you to be a whiny teenager!”

Another loud grumble reverberated back at him as Wendy flopped down on to the cash register, head thudding down. If she’d been in a better mood, the ‘ching!’ of the register opening under her face might have been amusing instead of irritatingly chipper sounding. She ignored the rolled eyes she got in return, the joking ‘sorry folks! She’s become stricken with the very common teenageritus, I had been hopeful she’d been cured a month ago!’ and the titter of amused tourists as they all wandered after Stan into their tour.

She ignored them all in favour of sulking.

Today _sucked_.

Big time.

Her phone buzzed again, another lit up ‘sorry, I know we promised but I’m really busy!’ message glaring up at her. She grabbed the offending item and put it to silent, jamming it in her pocket as she sat back in her seat and picked up a nearby magazine in the hopes of distracting herself.

Her thoughts trickled back in though, upset and disappointed.

After all it _was_ her birthday.

And she was stuck at work because she hadn’t been able to get the day off.

And it wouldn’t have mattered anyway because it turned out none of her friends were free enough to visit her on said birthday stuck at work. She’d been looking forward to some good old harmless mayhem, or better yet sneaking off before her shift finished.

But no. No one was around to keep her company, so here she was, stuck behind the cash register hoping something fun might just throw itself at her.

And to top it all off her Dad had a big project going so probably wouldn’t even be home until late and she hadn’t caught him this morning. She felt a little bit selfish, wanting him home early for a family dinner when he was doing everything he could to look after them but everything felt just a teensy bit _unfair_ this morning.

“Hey, dude, what’s up?”

“Oh nothing, just-” Wendy got ready for her spiel, the pent up disappointment that had been brewing ready to bubble up and spill from her lips until she caught sight of the smiling face in front of her and guilt crushed it all down.

Soos blinked at her, concerned and still as he waited for an explanation. She opened her mouth a few times before she shook her head, trying her hardest to relax into her usually chilled out seeming mask.

“It’s nothing.”

After all, how could she complain about _her_ birthday knowing what he thought of his? She’d made the mistake once before, just once, getting him some presents for his birthday and prodding Stan to put up some decorations.

It was a mistake she never made again, that was for sure.

“You sure?”

Wendy grinned, punching his shoulder. “Yes! I’m fine! Just Robbie being a jerk.”

“Heh, don’t tell Stan that, he’ll give him a piece of his mind!”

Wendy’s grin grew a bit more genuine at the thought. He might pretend otherwise, but he did actually care, that Stan. “Heh, now that would be interesting to see. Wanna take bets on who would win?”

Soos laughed, standing back up straight. “Don’t give him ideas, dude. You know he’d take that bet.”

Wendy shook her head as he vanished around the corner, rolling her eyes at the little fist pump he gave himself when he thought he was out of sight.

But she couldn’t help but agree that he had been successful in cheering her up.

The room went quiet again, the shop empty for her thoughts to trickle back in. She debated going and telling Stan a lie, that she didn’t feel well and needed to go home early.

She snorted.

_Like he’d ever believe that._

_You’d have better luck telling him the truth._

_Which would be none at all._

Wendy sighed, resting her head on her hand as she continued to flick through the magazine. She was pretty sure Stan only saw birthdays as a good money making scheme. Every so often he’d bring out the ‘it’s my birthday’ speech in the hopes some hapless sucker would give him something extra, or believe him when he told them everything was on sale.

She was sure she’d even heard him try it once to get out of a speeding ticket.

But when she asked him when his _actual_ birthday was he was always cagey and never gave a straight answer. She could pretty much say for certain that every day he told someone it was his birthday, it wasn’t. Not just because of the sheer magnitude of days he used the lie but for some reason she just couldn’t imagine him playing the stunt on his actual birthday.

Which meant that, what with the years that she had known the old man, she could say with quite good accuracy that there were less days in the year that _could_ be his birthday than ones that couldn’t be.

…He lied _a lot_.

Which begged the question as to how he’d respond to her telling the truth. As Wendy sat there, it seemed pretty obvious that telling him it was her birthday would more likely end in him laughing and asking her ‘so what?’ than letting her go home early.

After all, time was money and Stan was loathe to have no one watching the cash register when there were tourists to scam.

With that thought a small bubble of rebellion fizzled up from deep within. She glanced around the empty shop one more time, checked for Soos in case he saw her and took the quiet moment to slip up into her favourite place in the whole shack.

She took a deep breath as she found her lawn chair still in the roof space, flopping herself down as her eyes cast over the view of the town.

If she couldn’t have much else, she could at least have the best view on her birthday.

You saw some interesting things from this high up.

She didn’t even notice the time pass, locked away in her own peaceful world, letting herself unwind and stop thinking as she zoned out.

“You gonna come back to work or is this it for the day?”

Wendy jolted, flailing slightly as she sat back up to raucous laughter.

“Holy- you know I don’t think I’ve ever seen you move so fast.”

“S-shut it, old man.” Wendy huffed, heart racing still as she sat back down comfortably. Part of her thought she should probably be apologising profusely for being caught but then again, it always had been easier to just let it go around Stan. He seemed to like her attitude.

There was silence for a few more beats as he stood scrutinising her. “Well? There are customers downstairs. Are you coming?”

“Nah.” The word came out without much thought even as she sighed and sat back up ready to follow him.

She probably shouldn’t lose this job.

Stan laughed again, shaking his head. “Alright.”

“Wait, what?” Wendy froze, sure she’d misheard him. She had to have, otherwise she was worried for Stan’s wellbeing.

He never just OK’d this kind of thing. That was unheard of.

“You know you could have just said it was your birthday.”

Wendy blinked as a can suddenly loomed in front of her face, Stan sitting with a groan in the seat beside her. She took the can quickly as he shook it a few times in front of her, smiling at her favourite fizzy drink when the label was revealed.

“I was lying, there’s no one downstairs. Just wanted to see how you’d respond.” Stan opened his own drink, one hand behind his head as he let himself relax, a happy hum escaping him.

“You remembered my birthday?”

“Of course, you’ve been working here for- what? Three years now?”

She nodded, finally opening her drink and taking a long swig. “Just didn’t expect you to remember.”

Stan shrugged. Waiting for her to say more, he raised an eyebrow when nothing came. “So…bad birthday?”

Wendy shook her head. “Not really…just…another day?”

“Well if I remember correctly, last year you snuck away with your friends halfway through the day. Not up on to the roof.”

“Everyone’s busy today.”

“Ahh, that kind of birthday.” Stan let the silence drag on for a bit, hoping that it was a good silence. But it became uncomfortable quickly as he watched the dejected girl play with her drink. “You know…as I said, you could have just told me. I might have scolded you and refused jokingly but I would have let you have the day off - no pay of course!”

Wendy hummed, turning to him with an eyebrow raise he could be proud of. The look was equal parts disbelieve as suspicion, it looked good on her. He didn’t want anyone pulling the wool over her eyes. “Well, if you knew then why didn’t you say anything?”

Stan’s smirk grew wide, winking at her. “Perfect opportunity to let you know that I know about this place. And to let you know that I know where to find you if you’re skiving off work.”

“I’ll just find another place to chill out.” The words whipped out before she could help herself, teasing and mocking. She hadn’t let his empty threats keep her from a good skive yet.

“Nah, don’t do that. You’ll miss the view.”

Wendy blinked, turning back to it with a soft smile. “Yeah, it’s a good one.”

The silence stretched again, any awkward atmosphere vanishing with the wind. She chuckled, rolling her head back to look up at the sky above her. “You know, you should join me more often. Skiving together is kind of fun.”

“Heh, you know, I might take you up on that. It’s quite nice to watch the world go by once in a while.”

“Just don’t tell Soos.” Wendy turned her head, trying not to laugh at the perplexed expression. Always was fun to throw the old conman for a loop. “It’s quite fun to watch him squirm when he thinks I’m doing something wrong. If you know about this spot he won’t act the same.”

“You cruel cruel girl.” Stan shook his head, a fake disappointed frown on his face before his smile couldn’t be contained. “I love it! Your secret is safe with me.”

“Well, we can’t have anyone thinking you’ve gone _soft_ now, can we?”

“And we can’t have anyone thinking you’d do something you’re _allowed_ to do anyway.”

They both burst into laughter, the sound reverberating across the empty space before them, ricocheting out into the forest. The place felt warmer, more at ease as they let it all out, sinking into small banter and nothingness, a peaceful morning that Stan made sure to tell her was only until the next coach full of punters came along.

Wendy found it easier to agree to those terms now and get back to work.

Maybe this birthday hadn’t been such a bad one after all.

The next words out of his mouth made it ten times more exciting though.

She had hoped something fun would fall into her lap.

“So, for a birthday present…wanna learn how to pick locks?”

“Do I?!” Wendy sat up, spinning around in the lawn chair to grin at him.

Stan grinned back at her, sharp toothed, and eyes sparkling. “Glad to hear it. I’ll make a criminal out of you yet. We’ll start with locks! And then we’ll get to pickpocketing and scamming customers out of all their money! Or maybe we’ll go big! Let’s close the shack up early and go break in somewhere!”

“…Stan, you’re going to get me arrested on my 15th Birthday.”

“And? Isn’t that what birthdays are for? Doing dumb reckless things you really shouldn’t be up to?”

Wendy laughed, punching him in the shoulder as they both stood up to go back down, the promise of learning something new and interesting spurring her to get him moving. “Normally it’s not the responsible adults telling you stuff like that.”

Stan snorted, letting her drag him up with little resistance, trying not to laugh at how eager she was now to learn from him. “Well, it’s a good thing I’m not a responsible adult then, isn’t it?”

**Author's Note:**

> They really can’t be trusted together! I hope you liked it @snapback-gravity-falls everyone should go wish them a happy birthday!


End file.
